1914: The War Years, Book 1
James Farner (James Farner Publishing, 2015)
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James Farner has written a captivating tale of young men and boys coming to grips with their identities during the first year of The Great War. The story focuses on a family of brothers in Yorkshire, England trying to escape their impoverished surroundings. They naively believe that going off to war in the trenches will set them free of the misery they endure in their domestic lives. As the title states, Farner begins his story in January 1914 and concludes it twelve months hence. This is not a political chronology of 1914 but rather a well-crafted view of the year seen through the eyes of the complex characters. As with all good writing, this book not only thrusts the reader into the place and time in which the characters live, it also causes introspection on the part of the reader given the choices with which the characters are faced.
The flaws I find are with the verbiage and terminology used in the military segments. However, one must be mindful that this is not a military history, nor is it a historiography of any kind. It is a fictitious account of some events that took place during 1914. Perfectly depicted is the ineptitude of the young soldiers; they are not portrayed as heroes. Too many stories with war as a setting portray the characters as either utterly heroic or sheer cowards. These boys are both, which is what makes it so real. The actions and feelings of the men are more telling than what types of helmets they wore or how they addressed their superiors.
In sum, James Farner has penned (do people do that any more) the beginning of a saga that studies the character of a family of brothers thrust into war. I look forward to 1915.
The flaws I find are with the verbiage and terminology used in the military segments. However, one must be mindful that this is not a military history, nor is it a historiography of any kind. It is a fictitious account of some events that took place during 1914. Perfectly depicted is the ineptitude of the young soldiers; they are not portrayed as heroes. Too many stories with war as a setting portray the characters as either utterly heroic or sheer cowards. These boys are both, which is what makes it so real. The actions and feelings of the men are more telling than what types of helmets they wore or how they addressed their superiors.
In sum, James Farner has penned (do people do that any more) the beginning of a saga that studies the character of a family of brothers thrust into war. I look forward to 1915.
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